Catholic World News News Feature

Rhode Island bishop decries "relentless gay agenda" February 26, 2007

Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island, has charged that the state’s attorney general was swayed by pressure from homosexual activists when he ruled that Rhode Island should recognize the unions of same-sex couples married in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts is the only state in the US that gives same-sex the legal status of marriage. But Attorney General Patrick Lynch said that neighboring Rhode Island should recognize the validity of any marriage contracted in Massachusetts.

“It is clear that the attorney general’s thinking on this issue has been influenced by the relentless gay agenda so prevalent in our state,” Bishop Tobin said.

Noting the Lynch had made his announcement on Ash Wednesday, as Catholics began the penitential season of Lent, the bishop said that the step toward recognition of same-sex unions “has given us another reason to repent of our sins.”